Saturday, May 21, 2011

Genuine Scares: The Descent (Neil Marshall, 2005)

As I was watching Insidious the other day, I came to the realisation that there have been few films successful in genuinely scaring me. Insidious did a pretty good job, but Neil Marshall's The Descent is easily one of the scariest films I have ever seen. My second viewing of the film today confirmed this. I'm not claustrophobic or anything, but I hate ugly things appearing suddenly out of the darkness into an isolated illumination (torch, lantern etc). Freaks me out. I love that the film delays the entry of the 'Crawlers' until after half way, first offering up a number of natural fears for the women to process and overcome. Just when they thought their descent into an unmapped cave system could get any worse, out come the ravenous citizens.

Which horror film makes you jump out of your skin every time you watch it?


4 comments:

  1. [REC]! Hands down the scariest horror movie ever!

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  2. Ah [Rec]. I haven't seen it, but I have seen Quarantine, which I believe is a remake. Not certain. It had some moments too, but from what I have heard [Rec] is terrifying!

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  3. THE DESCENT would probably be at the top of my list as well. It's such a brilliant film...combines claustrophobia, fear of the dark, fear of heights...it's terrifying even BEFORE the murderous creatures appear.

    Other selections for me would be THE SHINING, TERMINATOR 2 (the T-1000 gave me nightmares as a child) and the opening scene of SCREAM (the rest of the movie is basically a comedy, but those first ten minutes are phenomenally scary)

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  4. Yeah, exactly! It doesn't present the monsters in the first few minutes and then run out of ideas in the latter half. It builds the suspense, and we don't see one of the creatures until like nearly an hour in. Great technique! The Shining, and Silence of the Lambs (the scene in the courthouse) and The Thing are amongst my scariest experiences too.

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